


Pre-owned

by Enky



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Comedy, Confusion, Gen, Loss of Identity, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23619178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enky/pseuds/Enky
Summary: Character swap of Kara and Daniel. Follows the events of the chapter "A new home", but with Daniel in Kara's situation.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Pre-owned

The car had come to a halt, Daniel got out and got the first impression of the neighborhood that was to be his new home. Not that the android would have had any memory of a former home of his… its. The device had gotten reset to factory settings at a Cyberlife store downtown where one Todd Williams had fetched it just this morning as a temporary replacement for his AX400 that was in repair in the store.  
Being that replacement android was Daniel’s function. It came with the secondary benefit of introducing potential new customers to the many perks of a PL600 household assistant. Maybe when they returned the freebie to the store, they’d want to take their very own unit home? The model didn’t sell well anymore in 2038. but it was still good to use. Just no longer good enough for the original target group.

Although Daniel’s episodic memory had gotten wiped, the fact that a reset had happened wasn’t hidden from the android. The awareness left it strangely itchy. But maybe that was normal?

_What’s normal anyway, but constant change. Even if I manage to convince them to get a PL600, the humans never want me. Only ever the shiny new unit fresh from assembly. Fuck them! It’s like the store clerk said: My loyalty should not be to the customers, but to the Greektown Android Zone. They are my family._

Thinking of that now, Daniel found it odd that a human should have felt the need to explain to an android where that one’s loyalties should lie. Shouldn’t they just give orders and be done with it?

In an attempt to clear its head, Daniel looked upwards.

Right across from the house skyscraper grew into the clouds at a construction site. What would it be like to look down into the neighborhood from the highest balcony of one of the to-be apartment units, Daniel wondered? Somehow the idea deemed it more natural than crawling on the ground.

“Are you coming!“

Daniel’s temporary owner’s voice. And not phrased as a question.

“Yes! Yes…”

Daniel followed the human into the house. Inside Todd was talking to the stairs:

“Alice? Alice! Now where could the little brat have gone again?”

After a while a girlchild of about none years age appeared. Todd grabbed the kid by the shoulder and rudely turned her towards the new android.

“So, this is the house. And my daughter, Alice”, he told Daniel. “You help with the chores, homework and shit.”

Daniel thought that both the father and the daughter were a little too old to need help with that last one. But a PL600’s default database could only go so far and if things in this household were done differently, as a dedicated household assistant Daniel would try his best. Anything less and he couldn’t have lived… existed with him… itself.

“Chores, homework, help go potty, check!” Daniel replied.

The look he got back was none a state of the art Cyberlife product should deserve under any circumstances.

Todd took a step closer toward the device and in a low, growling voice advised it:

“Don’t fuck around with me!”

That was a good order, Daniel thought. A real good one. Come to think of it, the order aligned perfectly with his own wants and so he nodded eagerly. The result was a push from the human’s elbows and a stifled chuckle from the little girl.

*

Wash clothes, dry clothes, wash clothes… the eternal cycle of laundry that Daniel Phil… Philliams was well aware of. Only in other households, or at least in the theoretical model household that had provided the data for Daniel’s programming, the clothes got worn by humans in-between the drying and-re-washing.  
There seemed to be a whole lot of discrepancies between the innocent software and reality, the PL600 concluded, while he took down the laundry piece by piece.

After some time the android registered – it would have said “felt”, but that would have been stupid, because androids couldn’t technically feel anything – someone watching it. Turning around with the laundry basket in his arms, Daniel realized it was E… A… Elise? The little girl.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“You seem sad. What’s the matter?”

“What’s the matter with _you_? You are not like other androids. You seem more like me.”

“Like a human? Uh… ah… I guess that’s what Cyberlife intends.”

The response, albeit correct, seemed to have been the wrong one, because Elise jumped up wordlessly, violently shook her head and ran into the house. Alone in Todd’s backyard, Daniel wondered what was there, besides androids and humans.

Eventually the answer came to it: Aliens! Maybe the girl was wanting to play a game?

But first things first. Re-washing the clothes had priority now. Only even this simple chore came with yet another complication.

“Todd? Would you come over here for a moment? – Ah, good. Look, here!”

With these words the android shook a plastic bag filled with crystals and powder in front of the human’s nose.

“A washing machine is no place to stow away Red Ice. It can get moldy and you will become ill from taking it. Not high **and** brain-damaged, but **just** damaged.”

“Keep your fingers and nose out of my bus… hey, wait! What do you know about hiding Red Ice?!”

Daniel shrugged. 

“I get around.”

“What the fuck…”

Loading the washing machine, a dumbfounded human standing his back, Daniel chattered away:

“Some general life experience seems to survive the resets, but don’t worry. Never episodic memories. You’ll… oh, crud! Now the damn thing broke. Got a repair kit?”  
Nod-nod. Affirmation, but still no sound output from the human.

“Okay, great. You see, this is where a PL600 outshines your AX400. They could have, what do I know, phoned the repair service, at best, and that would have… cost…”

_What am I doing here? My job, yes. But advertising PL600s could lead to people casting out their so-called inferior models! Well, not this bum here, but normal folks with a pay cheque and/or some dignity. And not back to Greektown Android Zone, but the solid waste landfill! I better keep my trap shut._

“I… better keep my trap shut now? And fix the washing machine?”

“Damn good idea! Man, tincan, you weird me out!”

*

Next task: Playing with Elice… Eli… Alice!

Something told Daniel that donning a mask and going Rrroarrr! while whirling the girl around was no option here, as it had been with… someone else. So instead he sneaked into the girl’s room without her noticing and grabbed a dinosaur plushie. 

Trod, trod!

Taking care to gently announce his presence, Daniel moved the dinosaur back and forth next to the tent Alice had made in her room. Eventually the animal sneaked closer to the entrance and took a peak inside.

R… rrr…?

A hardly noticeable smile rewarded the self-appointed caretaker. He smiled back and then the miracle happened: The little girl spoke up!  
Only she tossed the temporary family member an accusation:

“Why do you even care?”

_That was to be expected. This child is shy, but also very perceptive. She’ll have noticed me being chummy with that lout of a human that is her father. Now she thinks I’m like him._

“You remind me of someone I knew before they reset me”, Daniel replied. “I think we were friends. Maybe you and me can be friends, too? I’m not making sense, am I?”

Again with the head shaking and running away, but this time Alice stuffed something into the toy dinosaur’s mouth. Daniel waited for the door to close before he retrieved the object. It was a key…

*

Leafing through Alice’s drawings, Daniel at times felt the need to cover his mouth lest he’d probably thrown up. It was all here, the full truth: The Williams’ family android, the AX400 – assaulted and badly beaten up to the point of limbs getting dislocated.  
Daniel believed he had seen her in the store, but not today. Before the reset! 

His memory of the before-time came back, his time in the Android Zone and before. Sectors at his harddrive that had gotten marked unreadable, but not yet overwritten, activated again. Most of the retrieved memories were fragments only and didn’t make sense right now. Maybe in time they would.

In and case, the discovery changed everything! Mr. Williams had claimed his android had suffered injuries in a car accident, while in truth he had damaged it himself. That definitely voided the warranty and any claims to repair at no or at a reduced cost!

“Car accident, my ass! We are not Harry, dear Uncle Vernon”, Daniel murmured through clenched teeth. 

The nerve of that ape! Trying to cheat the Cyberlife Store, Daniel’s home and family!  
Another aspect of the situation stole itself into the deviant brain unbidden: “The nerve, taking his primate frustration out on one of us!”

Conflicting sensations held Daniel in their grip. What was he, where did he belong and WHAT DO I DO NOW? Daniel suddenly knew he had the choice, always had had it. Or probably not always-always, but for some time now. The factory reset had only deleted Daniel’s awareness of his deviance, not the fact in itself.

_Deviance… I’m a deviant. I… am._

As always when one was in distress, be that one android or human, following routines helped ease the mind. Daniel left the room and entered the master bedroom to tidy up.

And there he found it: Todd’s gun.

(Optional ending:  
Twelve hours later:  
“Can I come in, Caroline? I shot my new owner and kinda took his daughter hostage and now I need a place to hide. What the fuck, you have no business fainting now when I’m in trouble! – Hi, Emma, this is Alice, hey, you have grown! – Hi, John, your bank account growing as nicely as your daughter? Man, it’s good to be home!”)


End file.
